NY- Priest case adjourned until August, SNAP responds

NY- Priest case adjourned until August, SNAP responds

For immediate release: Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)

A Round Lake priest, who was arrested for inappropriate conduct with a minor, will go to court August 13. We are grateful this predator is being held accountable, but worried that his case has been adjourned for another three weeks. In this time it is possible that he might abuse more children.

We hope, although it is unlikely, that his inappropriate conduct with a minor was an isolated incident. Predators rarely attack only once. Fr. James Michael Taylor was a deacon and youth minister for the Corpus Christi Church during the alleged abuse and is now an ordained priest at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Schenectady.

Church officials should aggressively seek out any other people who may have been hurt. Bishop Edward Scharfenberger should personally go to each parish where Fr. Taylor worked and beg victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to speak up and call police.

We hope that anyone who saw suspected or suffered abuse will contact law enforcement. It is not too late to speak up and help protect innocent children.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)